UPI April 9 (UPI) — A zoo in New Zealand said an apparent attempt to steal squirrel monkeys from their enclosure was foiled when the primates fought back. The Wellington Zoo said someone used bolt cutters to break into the squirrel monkey enclosure after the zoo closed Friday night. “We initially believed a squirrel monkey was missing however we have since located all of these monkeys,” the zoo said in a Facebook post. The zoo said several of the 12 monkeys living in the enclosure sustained minor injuries, leading officials to believe they fought off the attempted thieves. “They are all doing well and we’re keeping them all together so they can support each other while they settle back into their daily routine,” the zoo said in a follow-up post. “We’ll be keeping a close eye on them over the next few days to make sure they are well.” The zoo said police are investigating the break-in

Hats off to these monkeys who decided they weren’t going to just be another statistic of animals that get kidnapped and step up, band together and serve a form of street justice to these criminals who remain at large. There wasn’t time to call the proper authorities so these squirrel monkeys knew it was up to them protect this house. I bet those monkey are getting the royal treatment at the zoo. All the other animals are letting them in front of them when it’s time for chow and are getting standing ovations whenever they enter a room. Good for them.

If you’re the guys who were trying to steal a slew of monkeys and you walk away empty handed because the monkeys took you to task, how do you even look at yourself in the mirror? Months of planning and figuring out how to break into the zoo only for the animals you’re trying to heist decide to become vigilantes and show you that you picked the wrong zoo bub. Gotta be humiliating to go back to their girlfriends who’re expecting to have a plethora of squirrel monkeys presented to them, for some unGodly reason, only to see their men squirrel monkeyless and embarrassed that a species much farther down the evolutionary totem pole got the better of them.

PS- I hope that if the cops catch these guys they say “And we would of gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those meddling squirrel monkeys.” I’d really like that